Judgment on Babylon
Thus says the LORD: See, I am rousing against Babylon, and against the inhabitants of Leb-kamai, a destroying wind.
And I will send to Babylon winnowers, and they will winnow her and empty her land; for they will be against her all around in the day of evil.
Let the archer not bend his bow, and let him not rise up in his armor. And do not spare her young men; devote all her host to destruction.
And the slain will fall in the land of the Chaldeans, and the pierced in her streets.
For Israel and Judah are not widowed of their God, of the LORD of hosts; though their land is full of guilt before the Holy One of Israel.
Flee from the midst of Babylon, and let each deliver his soul. Do not be silenced in her iniquity, for it is the time of the LORD’s vengeance; he is repaying her a recompense.
A golden cup was Babylon in the hand of the LORD, making all the earth drunk. From her wine the nations drank; therefore the nations go mad.
Suddenly Babylon has fallen and is broken. Howl over her! Take balm for her pain — perhaps she may be healed.
We would have healed Babylon, but she was not healed. Leave her, and let us go each to his own land, for her judgment has reached to the heavens and is lifted to the clouds.
The LORD has brought out our righteous acts. Come, let us recount in Zion the work of the LORD our God.
Sharpen the arrows, fill the quivers! The LORD has roused the spirit of the kings of Media, for his scheme is against Babylon, to destroy her; for it is the vengeance of the LORD, the vengeance of his temple.
Against the walls of Babylon lift a signal; strengthen the guard, set up keepers, prepare the ambushes. For the LORD has both purposed and done what he spoke concerning the inhabitants of Babylon.
You who dwell by many waters, abundant in treasures, your end has come, the measure of your unjust gain.
The LORD of hosts has sworn by his own soul: Surely I will fill you with men like the young locust, and they will raise a shout over you.
Praise to the God of Jacob
He made the earth by his power, established the world by his wisdom, and by his insight stretched out the heavens.
At the sound of his giving voice there is a tumult of waters in the heavens, and he brings up mists from the end of the earth; he makes lightnings for the rain and brings out wind from his storehouses.
Every man is stupid, without knowledge; every refiner is put to shame by the carved image, for his poured image is falsehood, and there is no spirit in them.
They are breath, a work of mockeries; at the time of their attending they will perish.
Not like these is the portion of Jacob, for he is the former of all, and the tribe of his inheritance; the LORD of hosts is his name.
Babylon’s Punishment
A hammer you are for me, weapons of war; and with you I shatter nations, and with you I destroy kingdoms.
And with you I shatter horse and his rider, and with you I shatter chariot and its rider.
And with you I shatter man and woman, and with you I shatter elder and boy, and with you I shatter young man and virgin.
And with you I shatter shepherd and his flock, and with you I shatter plowman and his team, and with you I shatter governors and prefects.
And I will repay to Babylon and to all the inhabitants of Chaldea all their evil that they did in Zion, before your eyes — the utterance of the LORD.
See, I am against you, destroying mountain — the utterance of the LORD — destroying all the earth. And I will stretch out my hand against you and roll you down from the crags, and I will make you a burnt mountain.
And they will not take from you a stone for a corner or a stone for foundations, for everlasting desolations you will be — the utterance of the LORD.
Lift a signal in the land, blow the horn among the nations! Sanctify nations against her; make heard against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni and Ashkenaz. Appoint against her a marshal; bring up horses like the bristling young locust.
Sanctify nations against her — the kings of Media, her governors and all her prefects, and all the land of his dominion.
And the earth quakes and writhes, for the thoughts of the LORD stand against Babylon, to make the land of Babylon a horror without inhabitant.
The mighty men of Babylon have stopped fighting; they sit in the strongholds. Their might is dried up; they have become women. They have burned her dwellings; her bars are broken.
Runner runs to meet runner, and messenger to meet messenger, to tell the king of Babylon that his city is captured from end to end,
and the fords are seized, and the marshes they have burned with fire, and the men of war are terrified.
For thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: The daughter of Babylon is like a threshing floor at the time it is trodden; yet a little while, and the time of harvest will come for her.
He devoured me, he confused me — Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon; he set me down an empty vessel, he swallowed me like a sea monster, he filled his belly with my delights, he rinsed me out.
My violence and my flesh be on Babylon, says the dweller of Zion; and my blood on the inhabitants of Chaldea, says Jerusalem.
Therefore thus says the LORD: See, I am contending your case and taking your vengeance; and I will dry up her sea and make her fountain dry.
And Babylon will become heaps, a lair of jackals, a horror and a hissing, without inhabitant.
Together like young lions they roar; they growl like the cubs of lions.
In their heat I will set out their drinking feasts and make them drunk, so that they exult and sleep an everlasting sleep and do not wake — the utterance of the LORD.
I will bring them down like lambs to the slaughter, like rams with he-goats.
How Sheshach is captured, and the praise of all the earth seized! How Babylon has become a horror among the nations!
The sea has come up over Babylon; by the tumult of its waves she is covered.
Her cities have become a horror, a land of drought and a desert plain, a land in which no man dwells and through which no son of man passes.
And I will attend to Bel in Babylon and bring out what he swallowed from his mouth; and the nations will no longer stream to him. Even the wall of Babylon has fallen.
Go out from her midst, my people, and let each deliver his soul from the burning anger of the LORD.
And do not let your heart go soft, and do not fear at the report heard in the land; and the report comes in one year, and after it in another year the report — and violence in the land, and ruler against ruler.
Therefore, see, days are coming when I will attend to the carved images of Babylon; and all her land will be put to shame, and all her slain will fall in her midst.
And the heavens and the earth and all that is in them will ring out over Babylon; for from the north the devastators will come to her — the utterance of the LORD.
Babylon too must fall, for the slain of Israel; for Babylon too the slain of all the earth have fallen.
Escapees from the sword, go, do not stand still! Remember the LORD from afar, and let Jerusalem come up on your heart.
We are ashamed, for we have heard reproach; humiliation has covered our faces, for strangers have come into the sanctuaries of the house of the LORD.
Therefore, see, days are coming — the utterance of the LORD — when I will attend to her carved images; and in all her land the pierced will groan.
Though Babylon should go up to the heavens, and though she should fortify the height of her strength, from me devastators will come to her — the utterance of the LORD.
A voice of outcry from Babylon, and a great breaking from the land of the Chaldeans!
For the LORD is devastating Babylon and destroying from her the great voice; and their waves roar like many waters, the din of their voice is given out.
For a devastator has come against her, against Babylon, and her mighty men are captured; their bows are shattered. For the LORD is a God of recompenses; he will surely repay.
And I will make drunk her princes and her wise men, her governors and her prefects and her mighty men; and they will sleep an everlasting sleep and not wake — the utterance of the King, the LORD of hosts is his name.
Thus says the LORD of hosts: The broad walls of Babylon will be utterly stripped bare, and her high gates will be burned with fire; and the peoples will labor for emptiness, and the nations for fire — and they will be weary.
Jeremiah’s Message to Seraiah
The word that Jeremiah the prophet commanded Seraiah son of Neriah son of Mahseiah when he went with Zedekiah king of Judah to Babylon, in the fourth year of his reign; and Seraiah was the quartermaster.
And Jeremiah wrote all the evil that would come on Babylon in one book — all these words written concerning Babylon.
And Jeremiah said to Seraiah: When you come to Babylon, then see and read all these words,
and say: LORD, you yourself have spoken concerning this place, to cut it off, so that there is no inhabitant in it, from man to beast; for everlasting desolations it will be.
And it will be, when you finish reading this book, tie a stone to it and throw it into the midst of the Euphrates,
and say: So Babylon will sink and not rise, before the evil that I am bringing on her — and they will be weary. Thus far the words of Jeremiah.